I have had in the past purchased ticket from Ctrip (domestic flights within China) where they put my last name on the first name column and my first name on the last name column. I did not have any problem getting on the flights using the ticket as is.

One suggestion I have is to purchase the ticket online, not through Ctrip phone. At least if you purchase online, you could type in your information youself. I know the time I did it through phone, I had to spell everything and still was not very sure if sales person really get everything correct until I actually see and confirm the ticket when I received them.

I just wanted to follow up on this, since I was the original poster. We ultimately decided to stick with our original tickets, because Ctrip wouldn't budge and wanted us to pay extra (and jump through a bunch of hoops) to change them. Rather than SURNAME/FIRSTMIDDLE, which is the correct order, our names were FIRST/SURNAME on the tickets, with no middle name at all and the last two letters of my mother's surname missing.

We had no problems at all in Hangzhou or Kunming - three different flights - no one (either airline personnel or security personnel) said anything or even seemed to notice. Next time I will just know to type in SURNAME/FIRSTMIDDLE myself when I book the tickets, but in the end, it doesn't seem to matter.

btw, i disagree with not having your middle name being a problem anywhere. i've never used my middle name on airline tickets except in china (i have a chinese name so it seems unnatural not to give it since it sounds unfinished). flights in the US, europe, japan, anywhere have not been a problem even though my middle name is on my passport and driver's license & my name is super short without it.

but you should not expect to be able to change flight tickets after they are issued. every time i get tickets, the agent asks me to look over the name before accepting it.